Pa. sees highest covid case count in 3 weeks

Pennsylvania has nearly 10,000 new covid cases, according to the state Department of Health.

There were 9,698 covid cases and 265 new deaths reported Thursday. Of the newly reported deaths, 103 are from January, 161 are from December and one is from November.

The new numbers bring total cases to 693,087 and total deaths to 17,179. Through the first seven days of January, there have been 52,762 cases and 1,201 deaths reported.

Thursday’s case count is the highest the state has seen in almost three weeks, when 9,834 cases were reported Dec. 19. Montgomery County was the county with the most cases reported Thursday with 839. Other counties with the highest cases counts were Allegheny (664), Philadelphia (634), Delaware (612) and Bucks (504).

In Pennsylvania, there are 5,491 covid-19 patients hospitalized as of Thursday, with 1,113 in the ICU and 625 on ventilators, per the DOH. There are 647 ICU and 2,518 medical/surgical beds available, according to the DOH covid-19 dashboard, which represent 13% and 12% of those totals, respectively.